Edinburgh rape victims must wait three months for counselling

RAPE victims will have to wait three months for counselling in the Capital, a charity has announced.

The Bonnington-based Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre has been forced into the move unable to meet demand for its services.

But its director told the Evening News anyone attacked in the last week will be seen and sessions for young people will continue.

“Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre regrets that, due to a continuing high level of demand for our services, we have had to take the very difficult decision to close our Edinburgh service until 31 August,” said centre director Caroline Burrell.

“We have taken this decision because the number of people waiting for our support now outweighs our capacity to be able to provide support in a timely way.”

Ms Burrell said anyone who needs support, or who needs a referral, will be directed to alternative services in Edinburgh and Lothians - including the Rape Crisis Scotland National Helpline.

“We will continue to take referrals for survivors who have been raped or assaulted in the past seven days,” she added.

“And in addition our support services for young people and outreach services in East Lothian and Midlothian will remain open.

“We believe that anyone who has experienced sexual violence should be should be able to access support when they need it, and will continue to do all we can to secure sufficient funding to enable us to achieve this.”

New advocacy project referrals will be closed until June 30. The centre secured more than £540,000 of funding with a £105,000 surplus last year - up 41 percent on 2017.

Main funders were the Big Lottery with £230,000, the Scottish Government with £140,000 and the city council with £38,000.

The centre offers free and confidential emotional and practical support to victims of sexual violence across the Lothians.

Its specialist counsellors help those affected, at any time in their lives, by rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse, childhood sexual abuse and commercial sexual exploitation.

We work to change attitudes about gender based violence and improve services for survivors. Our prevention project offers free sexual violence prevention education to 11–25 year olds in schools and other youth settings in Edinburgh.

Sexual assaults in Edinburgh were up more than a quarter (28.5 percent) from 307 to 388 over the last year.

Reports of rapes were up by 14.9 percent, to 223 between April 2018 and March 2019 compared to 194 the previous year - with around half historical abuse dating back over a year.

Retired MSP and former GP Dr Richard Simpson tweeted: “Really! Three months wait due to high demand.

“Add this to the list of services which have excessive waiting times for too many. Meantime the richest in our country have increased wealth by £50billion.

“We need a new more progressive government in UK and Scotland.”

The Rape Crisis Scotland national helpline can be contacted on 08088 01 03 02 every day from 6pm until midnight for support.